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This simple and subtle tee is a tribute to both Battlestar Galactica and fellow NBC Universal show The Office, where resident nerd and part-time beet farmer Dwight Schrute regularly touts his allegiance to the three Bs: bears, beets, and Battlestar Galactica.
While “BBBSG” tees are nothing new in television fandom, this tee is definitely a standout among the options currently available. The off-black color, the simple drawings, and the lack of text all create a nice homage to two great shows designed for the faithful and guaranteed to inspire conversation with the unconverted.
The shirt is a limited edition preorder shirt from Doubletake Clothing, and portions of each purchase will be donated to charitable causes.. The company is closing orders on February 22, 2009 so if you are remotely thinking this shirt is for you, head on over to their site and plunk down your $20 right now.
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Edward James Olmos seems to be everywhere this year, and he hit the red carpet again recently for the cocktail party celebrating the 61st Annual Director’s Guild Awards in Los Angeles. The DGA’s are part of the whirlwind of black tie events that make up the Hollywood awards season, all of which lead up to this month’s Academy Awards.
In the photo above Eddie is with actresses Amy Adams and Viola Davis. Adams has recently become a critics and awards darling, and is nominated for an Academy Award this year for Doubt. She was also a presenter at the DGA’s awards show that evening. Davis snagged one of the year’s most coveted roles when she was cast as the mother in Doubt, and is also nominated for an Academy Award for her role in the film.
Other stars attending the party included directors Ron Howard and Gus Van Sant, and actors Rachel Griffiths (Brothers and Sisters), Sean Penn, Marisa Tomei, Virginia Madsen, Josh Brolin, Lisa Edelstein (House), critic Roger Ebert, and a plethora of this year’s Academy Awards nominees such as actors Richard Jenkins and Frank Langella.
Eddie was nominated for a DGA Award in 2007, for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television for the movie Walkout. This year also marks the twentieth anniversary of his Academy Award nomination, as he was nominated for Best Actor in 1989 for Stand and Deliver.
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Frakkin’ toasters are everywhere, and you can’t trust anyone anymore. If you have ever wondered if your friends, coworkers, lovers, or enemies are Cylons then a new application for the iphone may be able to help you out.
To help promote the final season of Battlestar Galactica, the SciFi Channel has partnered with Apple to offer an iphone application called “Cylon Detector.” According to the website, the application uses photographs of your chosen subject to scan them and see if they are one of us, or one of them (us and them being a rather relative classification at this point in the series, of course).
The cost of the app is $1.99 and it apparently scans differently depending on if the subject is male or female. Click here for a more visual illustration of how the process works and what the results will look like.
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The whole country is talking about Barack Obama’s Presidential Inauguration this week, and actor Edward James Olmos is among the lucky few hundred thousand who get to attend the inauguration events in Washington, D.C.
On Saturday the actor attended a star-studded concert featuring Carole King & Bebe Winans, and last night he attended the 2009 Latina Inaugural Gala “Celebrando El Cambio.” Based on the photo above from last evening, he enjoyed at least one spirited conversation with Marc Antony and Jennifer Lopez.
The Latino ball was a star-studded affair designed to call attention to the increasing power of the Latino vote in presidential politics. Other celebrities in attendance included pop star Shakira, actress Rosario Dawson, comedian George Lopez, and many others.
Edward James Olmos will be back in California by Wednesday, when he is scheduled to speak at a Boys and Girls Club. The actor regularly makes appearances at youth and educational functions to promote a positive attitude amongst Latino children and educators.
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When he is not playing The Chief on Battlestar Galactica, actor Aaron Douglas enjoys participating in the occasional celebrity poker tournament. Aaron’s most recent poker adventure took place in Park City, Utah, on January 16 as part of the famous Sundance Film Festival.
The Green Suite Celebrity Poker Challenge benefited Ante Up for Africa (which promotes relief and awareness efforts), Lives to Save (which focuses on relief for Hurricane Katrina victims who are still struggling to rebuild their lives), and The Vine Group (which provides educational support to African countries).
Other celebrities in attendance included actor Mekhi Phifer (ER), shown above, actor Yancy Arias (Knight Rider), actor Don Cheadle (Ocean’s 11), numerous pro poker players and other celebrity personalities.
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Grace Park was in Tokyo this weekend to promote the final episodes of Battlestar Galactica. She appeared on January 19 at the shiny new Shinjuku Wald 9 theater complex for a special showing of the drama series, and spoke to the crowd about the final season of the series before the show.
Grace is known her interesting fashion choices but she looked comparatively conservative in Tokyo. Her only daring choice was in her accessories, as she paired her sleek and safe blue sheath and traditional hairstyle with a funky chunky silver-and-black necklace that rose high off her collar area.
Japanese pop musician Ken of L’Arc-en-Ciel was also on stage with Grace, and if anyone knows the connection between these two pop culture phenomenons please let me know. I can tell they are both extremely popular in Japan, but Google has yet to reveal how the two came to share the stage at a Battlestar Galactica event.
During a recent interview with a Canadian newspaper, Grace discussed the issues she was having with her multiple personalities on the BSG set when it came to remembering which Number Eight she was supposed to be playing at any given moment: “In fact, even the cameramen on ‘Battlestar’ would know if I wasn’t playing the appropriate character. And when I’d change it to the right one, they’d go, ‘Oh. There she is.’”
In addition to playing Number 8 on BSG, Grace also plays Special Agent Liz Carver on The Boarder, a Canadian television series about the Canadian Immigration and Customs Security Squad. In the States she can be found playing Akani Cuesta on The Cleaner, a drama series about the extreme measures an undercover team uses to help addicts beat their addictions.
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The serious actor behind Felix Gaeta, Allesandro Juliani, recently spoke with the Los Angeles Times about the final season of Battlestar Galactica. In the interview Juliani cites the Season Four episode “The Stump Serenade” as one of the defining moments for his character, and also states that Gaeta will have another huge and pivotal moment in the final episodes that have yet to air (he says it will be “obvious” to fans when it happens).
Most of the interview centered around questions from Los Angeles Times readers, who asked the actor about Battlestar Galactica’s impact on the world (he said he hoped it inspired discussion) and what he did when he found out the show was ending (he said he called his accountant).
The best quote of the interview came out of the question about who Gaeta’s ideal mate would be, which inspired this response: “I believe the recent webisodes speak for themselves. Felix is and has always been a sexual omnivore who will stop at nothing to satisfy his every libidinous whim.” Either Juliani is confusing his character with Baltar, or he is using his voice in deadpan with hysterical results.
At one point Gaeta was a popular choice among the fans for being the First and Final Cylon. As most everyone knows by now, the final season of Battlestar Galactica will premiere on the SciFi Channel on Friday night. After four years of teasing, and particularly the painful teasing of last season, hopefully the next few weeks will bring answers and finally “all will be revealed.”
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Each year the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Los Angles (BAFTA LA) hosts an elegant tea party in honor of the American film awards season. It is usually a swanky A-List event crawling with potential Academy Award nominees, and usually a few Battlestar Galactica cast members. This year Tricia Helfer represented the Vancouver-based show, while last year’s event featured Jamie Bamber.
Other celebrities at the event included Clint Eastwood (Grand Tarino), Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon), Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire), Leonardo Di Caprio (Revolutionary Road), Kate Flannery (The Office), Tom Wilkinson (Michael Clayton), David Fincher (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Josh Brolin (Milk), previous Academy Award winning actresses Kristen Scott Thomas and Marisa Tomei, Alicia Witt (Law & Order: Criminal Intent), Lucy Davis (Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip), Saffron Burrows (Boston Legal), Viola Davis (Doubt), and many others.
To see images of the event and the stars who attended, check out the official BAFTA photo gallery.
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Entertainment Weekly is doing a “SciFi Showdown” this week, pitting iconic science fiction moments against each other in a multiple part poll.
Tricia Helfer’s Number Six appears in the “Pleasure Bot” category, pitted against Jude Law’s pretty performance in AI: Artificial Intelligence. It should be no surprise that Number Six is spanking Jude’s cyborg, she is getting 89 percent of the votes at this point. Go Tricia!
The poll also pits Admiral Adama’s battered Battlestar Galactica against Captain Jean Luc Picard’s Starship Enterprise NCC 1701-D from Star Trek: The Next Generation. As of this post, the Enterprise was winning the “Warship” category 61 percent to 39 percent. BSG is also struggling in the “Snub Fighter” category, which asks voters to choose between the Galactica’s vipers and Star War’s X-Wings. So far Star Wars has almost eighty percent of the votes.
Other questions in the poll ask whether K.I.T.T. is cooler than the modern Batmobile, and whether Excalibur is a cooler sword than the Thundercats‘ Sword of the Omens.
Probably the toughest question of the bunch is the puzzler of which ship makes the better smuggling vessel: the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars or the Serenity of Firefly? While the Falcon had Han and Chewy, some serious box office mojo and long merchandising life have dimmed its reputation as an outsider choice. Serenity’s cult following and early cancellation, on the other hand, have helped it retain that criminal cache that every smuggling vessel needs to gain underworld credibility. It’s a tough call, but generations of lunch boxes should be reward enough for the Falcon … my vote goes to Serenity.
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Edward James Olmos hits the theaters this week in the feature film Beverly Hills Chihuahua, which title alone indicates is a far cry from the thoughtful darkness and questioning of Battlestar Galactica. EJO gives voice to a doberman pincher in the Walt Disney feature, which stars Drew Barrymore as the title pooch.
Although the plot is predictably panned, the voice actors are getting early raves from publications like The Hollywood Reporter.
The plot of the movie surrounds a pampered pooch who is inadvertently left behind in Mexico. In her efforts to get home she encounters crazy characters and character-building adventures in classic Walt Disney form. Olmos’ character is reportedly involved in the more dangerous side of being a dog, those canines that are bred for fighting at the pleasure and profit of professional gamblers. Hopefully EJO can help make it clear to the audience who the real villains are in that scenario. I understand there is an amazing German Shepherd voiced by Andy Garcia as well, so there is definitely hope that it is the humans (and not the dogs) who will be shown as the instigators of dog-fighting for profit.
There have already been concerns about the film’s ethnic stereotypes, but people familiar with EJO’s career see that as the least of the concerns … the veteran actor and latino activist is not likely to sign on to a film that is insensitive to the point of being offensive. Of larger concern is the long history of canine theft and tragedy that tends to follow popular dog films aimed at children. To lessen the fears of dog-lovers, Disney partnered with PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) to warn people about purchasing dogs from unproven breeders or adopting pets without a plan for their care.
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Katee Sackhoff chose a somber get glamorous black ballgown for Sunday evening’s Emmy red carpet, one that simultaneously showed off her toned curves and sported an elegant train. Katee’s look was backless to emphasize her muscled physique but avoided harshness due to her dangling earrings and messy bun hairstyle. Her impish grin made the look complete … and also reminds this fan of the scene in season one where we see Starbuck, prideful and teasing, in a ballgown for the first time.
Katee had a lot to grin about, as news recently broke that she will play the lead in a new NBC show entitled Lost and Found. She will play an unruly cop who refuses to play by the rules, and the show is executive produced by Law & Order creator Dick Wolf. Katee has been taking several steps to insure she has a bustling post-BSG career, so hopefully this is not the only casting news in her future.
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Tricia Helfer looked regal on the red carpet at Sunday’s 60th Annual Emmy Awards ceremony, wearing a sweeping red gown designed to show off her long legs and killer curves. Tricia was listed among the best dressed by the Boston Globe at the Pittsburgh Gazette among other media outlets. The New York Post praised her for taking the risk of wearing red on the red carpet and pulling it off thanks to the interesting cut of her gown.
Tricia was there representing both BSG and Burn Notice. She apparently had an equally busy weekend, spilling to E! Entertainment that Battlestar Galactica does not keep fans in suspense about the final Cylon until the final episode. E! rewarded Tricia by highlighting her on the red carpet during the network’s red carpet show, which assured even more eyes were on Tricia.
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Grace Park hit the red carpet last Sunday for the 2008 Emmy Awards, wearing a daring skin-tight pants ensemble that went against the ballgown trends of the evening. Grace was representing both Battlestar Galactica and her new show The Cleaner, and wore her hair in a messy curl updo that worked with her daring outfit.
The fashion press reaction to Grace’s picks were mixed, with her appearing on some folks worst dressed list and others cute lists, but anytime we get to see Grace out and about is fine with me. She reportedly slipped to the press that she and most of the other BSG cast members were staying at the home of Jaime Bamber (Lee “Apollo” Adama) for the weekend, while Jaime and his family were back in the U.K. Sounds like the best after-party in Los Angeles was at the Bamber residence, even if Jaime was not around to make an appearance with his famous towel.
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Post Fail LOLCat
Or perhaps the fail is the lack of posts, as in this case. Nothing like announcing new content is incoming on watchingbsg.com only to be able to face the technical inability to follow-up and make new posts! Once I got my system issues worked out with 451 Press, other issues cropped up with my home computers, blah blah blah.
I will save you all the technical details, it’s the least I can do. My apologies to the readers, but things should change in the next few days assuming the technical gods comply … So Say We All.
In the interim I will get up some pictures of this week’s disastrous Emmy celebration, which thankfully featured some gorgeous appearances by the Battlestar Galactica cast. Gorgeous photos of Grace Park, Tricia Helfer, Katee Sackhoff, and others should follow very soon. Hopefully more posts will be up soon as well, technical (Cylon?) gods willing.
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My sincere apologies for being MIA this summer, and thanks to everyone who has checked in and asked about my father. He is doing much better, and I am almost healed from the trauma of the finale of Battlestar Galactica.
Yes, I am among those who are discontent with the latest season of BSG and am apprehensive about the last few episodes. I have written before about my concern that Ron Moore was confusing the ability to piss off an audience with good writing, and as I watched that concern become reality it was like the last hope I had for BSG was extinguished as well.
My complaints about the last set of episodes have probably been listed elsewhere (to be honest I am not sure because I stopped reading the blogs and message boards this summer as well), but they center around the erratic pacing and story lines. So the past few months BSG, which was once so shiny and interesting to me, became a thing I could not think about without feeling disappointed and sad. And the blog has of course suffered as a result.
But then I caught an earlier episode on television last week, and it reminded me why I love this show and why I am still interested in following the escapades of the cast and crew after it is over. So I am revving back up the blog a bit, and hope to catch up on the BSG news. With so many interesting projects in the works, there is a lot to write about!
More Soon,
Margie
